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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Looking for Alaska

Looking for Alaska by John Green is a young adult novel set at a boarding school in Alabama.

As a former boarding school student, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with books set in boarding school. I loved boarding school and think it was a really great thing for me so I like reading books that remind me of it. On the other hand, I get frustrated at how life in a boarding school is portrayed. Looking for Alaska was no different that other boarding school books in this aspect. While there were parts of the plot that I found realistic, there were parts that really annoyed me because of the unlikelihood they would ever happen.

Looking for Alaska definitely had some of these gimme-a-break moments, including how the main event of the novel happened, but at the same time, something similar could have happened with actual adult supervision around. (But really, where were the adults in this book?!)

I really loved Miles's desire to go to boarding school: to seek the great perhaps. I think my desire to go to boarding school and to Wyoming come out of this idea. What great adventure would I find?

I enjoyed Looking for Alaska, but it was more of a downer than I expected. For a happier Green book, I really enjoyed An Abundance of Katherines.